Former leading New Zealand publisher and bookseller, and widely experienced judge of both the Commonwealth Writers Prize and the Montana New Zealand Book Awards, talks about what he is currently reading, what impresses him and what doesn't, along with chat about the international English language book scene, and links to sites of interest to booklovers.

Friday, November 19, 2010

DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: The Ugly Truth enjoys massive sales

PublishersLunch

The Kid Does It Again: Kinney's Ugly Truth Sells Over 825,000 Copies In First Week

After Crown's announcement of strong opening week sales for George Bush's DECISION POINTS, Abrams' imprint Amulet Books says that Jeff Kinney's DIARY OF A WIMPY KID: The Ugly Truth performed even better, selling over 825,000 hardcover copies in the US in its first week on sale (the title is not available as an ebook). The publisher says that is "nearly 20 percent" higher than first week sales for the previous Wimpy Kid release in October 2009, though a year ago their preliminary estimate of first week sales for DOG DAYS was in excess 750,000 copies.

Abrams ceo Michael Jacobs says: "Sales for The Ugly Truth in the first week exceeded all our expectations. Despite being on sale one less day than Dog Days due to its lay down date, the new Diary of a Wimpy Kid book is breaking all previous records." The company says that attention and promotions for the new book also lifted sales of the four previous books by 75 percent or more in the past week.

Random House to Close Operations at Tricycle Press Imprint

Random House Children's Books is closing the Berkeley-based Tricycle Press imprint, acquired as part of Ten Speed Press, on January 31, 2011. They will continue to "sell and support" the Tricycle backlist and will decide soon what label forthcoming titles will be published under.

Publisher Nicole Geiger and the four editorial staff members will leave the company as result. Tricycle marketing and publicity manager Laura Mancuso will remain as part of Random House Children's.

Jaimy Gordon and Patti Smith Win NBA Awards

Last year the books that had sold the best won the two main National Book Awards but this year provided pointed contrast, with the novel that had sold the least paired with the nonfiction book that sold the most. Jaimy Gordon's just-released LORD OF MISRULE from McPherson, with three-digit print sales in its first two weeks on the market, prevailed in the fiction category. Meanwhile, Patti Smith's award-winning nonfiction title JUST KIDS had already outsold the rest of the nonfiction field combined.
(Author pic right - Tina Fineberg/Associated Press)

Paperback rights to Gordon's book were sold to Vintage earlier this month (with her next book sold separately to Pantheon), and HarperCollins released Smith's book in trade paperback at the beginning of the month. But as of now you can't buy Gordon's novel as an ebook (though news here is expected shortly). Vintage will publish the trade paperback with an on-sale date of March 1, 2011, as their lead title with a six-figure printing to be set later.

Also taking medals were Kathryn Erskine's MOCKINGBIRD for young people's literature (from Philomel--her title isn't available as an ebook either), and Terrance Hayes' LIGHTHEAD for poetry (from Penguin).